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3 Answers
3

Hamentashen comes from the words "Haman Tish" -- the Table of Haman in Yiddish.

Therefore, since there were three people by Haman's party they needed a three sided table( both Haman and Achashveirosh considered themselves to be the most important people in Persia and wouldn't want to sit with Esther).

The Hamentash represents the Table on which they (Haman,Esther and Achashveirosh) sat and the filling represents the food which they ate. (From where the custom to give a "last meal" came).

@ShmuelBrill, it would needtzitzis. Kneading tzitzis is forbidden based on the chashash that you may come to braid them into chalos, which is not the correct way of tying them.
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msh210♦Feb 23 '12 at 0:40

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@msh210 The shulchan aruch rules that something for your head would not be chayav in tzitzit, and we all know that ‏**אזנ**י המן are for your head.
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Double AA♦Feb 23 '12 at 6:34

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@msh210: this is borne out by a pasuk in Koheles (4:12): והחוט המשולש לא במהרה ינתק. Al tikrei ינתק, ela יקנת - the strings on the triangular hamentash shall not be quickly braided (kneyt, in Yiddish).
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AlexFeb 23 '12 at 15:55

Unfortunately, this is nothing more than a common misconception which stems from ignorance and from a lack of proper education in certain communities. Hamentashen are not required to have 3 sides. There's a famous derasha from the spelling of the word haman: just like a מ has 3 sides, a ה has two and a half, and a ן has one and a bit, so too a hamentashen: as long as it has one side and a bit of a second, it's permissible.

You might object: perhaps this just teaches us the proper way to eat a hamentash - it must start out with three sides, but then it gets reduced? The answer is that we would say so if the name had been מהן, with the letters in that order. Since the ה comes first, and you can't add on an extra half a side to the hamentash after it's baked, this demonstrates that indeed these are the acceptable shapes at the time it's made.
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AlexFeb 23 '12 at 15:59

@SethJ It is my impression that purim torah posts should only be bumped during shaar yemot hashana only if really really necessary (a higher standard than regular edits).
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Double AA♦Jul 23 '12 at 19:01

@DoubleAA, fair enough. My bad. Apostrophes are just so tempting to correct. I do apologize.
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Seth JJul 23 '12 at 19:12

This halacha is necessary to be taught, otherwise only the first bite would be considered to fulfill the mitzva. And while the ideal case might be that everyone should have his own hamentash, once we know that a hamentash with a bite taken out of it is still kosher, we can infer that a hamentash can be shared between multiple people and each of them will be yotze.
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J. C. SalomonFeb 19 at 14:53